This is our last day of the cruise. I have breakfast in La Fontaine dining
room, and a couple from San Diego I met a couple of weeks ago at breakfast are
seated with me again. They related a hilarious story about a flood of water they
had coming down the wall behind the toilet in their cabin. Her husband sat on
the edge of the tub and kept pressing the toilet flush button to prevent the
water from flooding the rest of the cabin, while she flagged down someone to
come fix the problem. He sat there for 20 minutes before a repairman finally
arrived, and the guy was amazed at their ingenuity. He opined that most
passengers would have let the cabin flood! I had to chime in and suggest she
missed a golden opportunity to take a photo of her husband while he was in the
bathroom, have a print made, and enter it in the photo contest under “People”.
That broke up the whole table!

I go out on the Lower Promenade Deck after breakfast and see a pod of
dolphins beside the ship. The outside temperature this morning is only 16°C -
time to wear a jacket! The ship's staff stage the farewell show this morning. It
was great to see all the serving staff and cabin stewards. The show was the same
format and script as last year’s on Volendam. My evaluation survey
arrives after lunch, so I put a fleece jacket on and go out on the Lower
Promenade Deck to fill it out while I experience the last day on the ship. I
complain about the lack of enrichment speakers, but otherwise give them an
excellent grade.

We had some moderately rough seas last night, but by this afternoon the sea
has smoothed out. We are left with a slow, rolling sea almost the length of
Rotterdam, which means she noses into the trough, then pulls up and out, so
the view from the stern decks is of the horizon bobbing up and down slowly. Some
people are getting seasick…on their last night aboard!

After dinner, I get serious about packing. In order to have my bag
transferred to dockside tomorrow morning, it has to be out in the
hallway by 1AM for pickup. After packing everything into my main bag, it feels
heavier than when I arrived! Oh well, there isn’t anything I can do about it.
Alaska Airlines charges US$20 per bag, so I’m sure they will tell me and charge
me more if it is overweight. I just want to get the packing done so I can put my
bag out for pickup, and then get to bed. The announcements for seeing
immigration will apparently start as early as 6:15AM tomorrow morning. My
friends and I are all scheduled to disembark at 9AM, the first time slot
tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 - Day 31 – San Diego to Victoria

I wake up around 5:30AM this morning as the transverse thrusters are turned
on in preparation for our arrival in San Diego. This has been my wake call
whenever the ship is arriving in port throughout the whole cruise. Thom the
Cruise Director comes on the PA system at 6:30AM explaining how the
disembarkation process will work, although we were already briefed at the
Farewell Event yesterday. My deck ends up being called upstairs to clear U.S.
Immigration fairly early, so after I go to the Lido buffet for breakfast around
8AM. I get to say goodbye to a steward who calls me by name and is always joking
around.

The immigration clearance is going well for the rest of the passengers, and
they appear to be ahead of schedule before things go off the rails. They can’t
find a Mr. Jones, and until every last person clears immigration, nobody can
leave the ship. The Express Departure time of 8:45AM goes by, as well as our
departure window of 9:00AM. Finally about 9:15AM, they announce the Express
passengers can leave the ship. We are called at about 9:45AM, which still leaves
us plenty of time to find our bags and catch a taxi to the San Diego airport.
After arriving about 20 minutes later at the airport, we check in with no line up,
and then it takes 20 minutes to go through the security check to get to our
gate.

There are lots of Rotterdam passengers aboard this flight, and the flight is
also full of holiday travellers. San Diego airport has free Internet like
Vancouver, which is a great idea. Of course, the system is swamped, but I manage
to catch up with my email and facebook before they start loading the flight. As
usual, Alaska is using a newer Boeing 737-800, and flight 483 departs on time at
12:20PM. I manage to take a few photos of San Diego from the air before the
aircraft turns north.

Alaska Airlines offers in-flight Internet through the Gogo service. They want
US$9.95 for the two-hour flight, which is a bit rich, but I might be interested
if this were a longer flight. As the flight progresses, the landscape changes
from farming valleys with irrigation ditches to desert, and later to frozen
lakes and some snow cover. We hit a few bumps in the middle of the flight, so
the pilots climb to a new flight level and things smooth out again. Horizon
Airlines flight 2388 from Seatac to Victoria leaves on time, my bag appears on
the belt in Victoria Airport, I clear Customs and Immigration, and I’m driving
home by 6:30PM. It’s good to be home.